Field of the Invention
This invention relates to marketing and more particularly relates to systems, computer-readable media, and methods for activation-based marketing.
Description of the Related Art
In general, marketing costs can be a substantial portion of the overall cost of launching a new product, service, or program. Indeed, marketing costs can often far exceed development costs associated with a new product, service, or program. Nonetheless, marketing is typically an essential element of, e.g., product launches. This is typically due to a correlation between demand for the product and public awareness of the existence of the product.
Certain more sophisticated marketing techniques may include targeted marketing campaigns. For example, a company may target a particular demographic segment of society with a television or radio advertisement. In these situations, the advertisement may include actors that are the same age, gender, or ethnicity as individuals in the target demographic segment.
Unfortunately, only general information about the target demographic segment as a whole is typically available. For example, a hypothetical company may have information through surveys, or other information sources indicating that Asian men over the age of 40 are most likely to purchase their products. In this example, the hypothetical company may chose to focus their marketing investment on creating advertisements that are most likely to appeal to people of that demographic segment. Alternatively, the company may chose to expand their market by targeting another demographic segment. In either approach, it is clear that only limited demographic information is available to help guide the marketing campaign.
The referenced shortcomings are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are among many that tend to impair the effectiveness of previously known techniques in marketing; however, those mentioned here are sufficient to demonstrate that the methodologies appearing in the art have not been satisfactory and that a significant need exists for the techniques described and claimed in this disclosure.